Joshua. D's New Bard Handbook . I think bard is one of the most balanced, dynamic, and fun classes to play in the game. I didn’t appreciate how many options and abilities were available to it until I dug into the various source books. Sure, you don’t have the raw power of the nuclear classes, but you can be in a party with other tier 2- 5 classes and really shine. The bard can be adapted to a bunch of different play styles: caster, gish (sword- mage), arcane archer, face, crowd control, skill monkey, and healer. He can usually fill a number of those roles at the same time, and does so effectively.
Wizards and things like the DMM Cleric possess campaign shattering nuclear power, but where’s the fun in that? The DM is pissed at you, the other players are pissed at you, and the campaign ends early. The bard is what D& D should be: dynamic, rewards creative play, powerful without being over- powered, and his abilities are friendly to other PCs. I cannot recommend the class enough, especially for your next low- or mid- powered campaign. That being said, the original handbook is great, and I recommend reading that one as well as this one to get multiple view points.
The New Bard's Handbook for Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, written by JoshuaD. A review of ability scores, races, prestige classes, feats, skills, skill tricks, spells.
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They are all very good, I recommend that you read them as well. Dictum Mortuum – The Bard’s Handbook – The original handbook. A handbook dedicated entirely to maximizing inspire courage, one of the best features of the Bard’s class.
Definitely worth a read. Not comprehensive, but a few good angles. However, he talks a lot about crowd control, area effects, and spell use, so this is a good read. Worth reading if you’re thinking of going that direction. Watch online La Siberia with subtitles in 4320p there. For closed content it only gives book references, but it’s awesome anyway. The Unoffical Tome of Battle Tools Page – Very easy- to- navigate reference for the book of nine swords, which we can gain access to via the martial feats.
Not a common choice, but strong. In addition, each the following members of the Giant in the Playground Forums helped contribute to this handbook: Hiro Quester, Gabrosin, Troacctid, Red Fel, Telonius, Coma. Vision, eggynack, Saintheart, Quick.
Ly. Rai. Nbow, and Theodred the. Old. Thanks guys! Also, some people have commented here with some really nice observations. The Dragon Magazines are a little more difficult to review comprehensively, so I included the peaks I could find, but may have missed some items.
You should be warned that Dragon Magazine features are typically unbalanced and should be reviewed with a critical eye before being accepted into your campaign. I don’t think you should try to read it straight through. Instead, use it as a reference. I had a choice between only including the best or more stand- out items, or trying to be inclusive of all reasonably possible options.
I chose to be inclusive. I think this will help more people and help people create diverse builds that I might not have considered. I recommend doing more than that.
Keep that in mind while designing your character. I recommend that you look at the build every four levels (or at specific key levels, depending on your class) and consider how you’d like the character at each of those level. But for most people, level 1- 1. Make sure you keep that in mind while developing your character.
Remember; the goal isn’t to optimize some theoretical mechanic; the goal is to optimize fun. The only problem he faces is the 2/3rds base attack bonus. It’s a feat- intesive thing, but definitely doable. He has a few direct damage spells on his list, but not many. Inspire courage is very strong, easy to make much stronger, and it’s one of your core class features.
Your spells can support this role as well. Buffing is something the bard is always going to be good at (unless you actively work to make him bad at it).
The bard has access to a poor- man’s version of the Cleric’s Divine Metamagic Feat, so 2. He also has good access into the illusion school, which opens up a world of possibilities. The Sublime Chord prestige class lets the bard get access to 7th – 9th level wizard / sorcerer spells, so the Bard is capable of being a mini- sorcerer pretty easily.
The bard also gets access to Doomspeak (although at later levels), which is one of the strongest debuffs in the game. I don’t tend to recommend taking them, but if your party is light on healing, you can get the job done.
In either case, the bard should carry some wands of cure wounds to help heal between fights (he can activate them without chance of failure since the spells are on his class spell list) or a wand of lesser vigor (once he’s high enough level to succeed on the Use Magic Device check). There are ways to get into full plate mail, dual- wielding can be good, and you can output a lot of damage using feats like knowledge devotion and snowflake wardance. Your hit points aren’t great, so you have to be a little careful not to get squished, but you can definitely develop your character to output a ton of melee damage. This direction really benefits from Metamagic Song and Persist spell, too. He can pump all of the social skills (except intimidate), he has a lot of social- related spells (charm, fascinate, suggestion, detect thoughts, etc.), and has some social related class- features.
The more creative you can be in social situation, the more fun you’ll have playing this class. He makes a great stealther / skill monkey. His most natural use of skills is for social stuff, but he can easily be sneaky, and the two aren’t exclusive.
Generally, you can leave that to the fighter classes. You can output damage or manipulate the battlefield; let them get beat up while you play chess. That being said, a melee bard can build a little tanky if he goes deep into the crusader class (It has a d. The best thing here is the Whip, which can be used to trip opponents from a distance with some special advantages. Also, the Arms and Equipment Guide (P1.
Whip- Dagger” that you can use with no additional proficiency required, that does real damage rather than subdual. You should definitely carry one and look for opportunities to use it. At higher levels, this will probably lose its appeal. At lower levels, it can be a really solid option. Also, a bard doesn’t suffer Arcane Spell Failure in light armor, which is very nice. He has limited spells know and limited spells- per- day, so it is important to choose your spells wisely.
There’s certainly nothing wrong with it, but I think there are better options if you’re taking alternate class features. There are many different kinds of bardic music. Countersong – Because it takes a standard action to activate and only protects against sonic or language- dependant magical attacks, this is very weak. It’s possible to go an entire 2. It will be also virtually impossible to get this to protect against instantaneous effects. The one place it has some value is to try and break the effect of a continuous effect, but even then, it has to be a sonic or language based attack. I recommend swapping this out if you can.
The ability is limited to one target per 3 levels. This feature isn’t that great, but it has some fun in- game applications. It is most useful as the pre- requisite for suggestion or mass suggestion. A creative bard with a reasonable DM can find some nice tricks with this ability. When you use feats, magical items, and additional bard levels to get this bonus higher, it becomes responsible for a metric ton of damage. Obviously, this ability is stronger in a party of physical combat characters, and weaker in party of casters. The best part about this is it makes your fellow players happy, because their characters are more effective.
A +2 to a single skill for a single ally, for maximum two minutes. There are better things if you’re using alternate class features. The big limitation it has (compared to the spell) is that you can’t use it in combat, because fascinate is a pre- requisite and you cannot fascinate in combat. On the other hand, the DC to resist this is almost certainly going to be higher than the spell’s, which is nice.
Half- elf bards (or other bards with generous DMs) will want to look at getting the spell Suggestion (so you can use it in combat) and swapping out this feature for Command, which is a little weaker, but less restrictive in how it can be cast (and also not on the bard’s spell list). It gives extra hit dice, a small fort bonus, and a bonus to attack rolls that stacks with inspire courage. It will be useful occasionally. If not, it is an alright ability that grants +4 to all saving throws. Unfortunately, the requirement that the targets be fascinated is very limiting, both because it means this can’t be used in combat and because it limits the number of targets.
I recommend it over bardic knowledge, but you may want to use this class- feature- slot for something else. It’s worth noting that if you’re going to be multi- classing early, the benefit of this ability is more limited, because the bonus is calculated based on bard level. I would rule that any Prestige Class that advances Bardic Knowledge would also advance this feature, but you will have to check with your DM for his ruling.
If you can have a maxed- out charisma and a 1. The big upside is an extra spells known, which is typically a hard limitation for bards. Choke movie online in english with english subtitles in 2160 16:9. If you go into sublime chord, you can switch to charisma- based spell casting for level 4+ spells.
The Blackburn college gives you +1 to diplomacy and gather information, and makes knowledge (dungeoneering) and knowledge (the planes) cross- class. Those aren’t too exciting. But the Blackburn College is a nice clean upgrade. The cost isn’t too steep. I don’t typically go this route, but I think it’s an OK option. Don’t forget that you’re actually losing Lore Song (not bardic knowledge), which is bonkers good.
However, you do gain the ability to cast in full armor (letting you dump dex) so this might be worth looking at for a melee bard. The spells you gain are not exciting. Lose bardic knowledge, inspire courage, inspire competence, inspire greatness, and inspire heroics.